On Saturday the 9 July the Otago Girls' Swim team competed at the South Island Secondary School Swimming Championships which were held in Invercargill. We had some stunning results with many personal best times achieved. 

A big congratulations to Erin Ford, who had an outstanding meet, gaining two second placings in the 200m and 100m backstroke in the 15 and over age group. Carina Donegan, Esme Paterson and I also qualified for finals and made top eight placings in our individual events. This year, it was great that we had the numbers to be able to enter in both the 4x50m freestyle relay and the 4x50m individual medley relay, resulting in two 5th placings. Overall, the meet was lots of fun with all the girls competing well. It was exciting to have new Otago Girls' Swimming Caps, which gave us an extra sense of pride in representing the school. We really felt like a team and a force to be reckoned with.

Mrs Julie Ford travelled as our team manager. On behalf of the Otago Girls’ swimmers, I would like to thank Julie for driving the team down to Invercargill and for the wonderful job she did in supporting us and making sure that we were at the right place at the right time.

I wish all girls involved with swimming all the best in future years.